There’s a certain amount of pleasure from seeing men in their late sixties acting like teenagers, but Last Vegas grounds the frivolity in old-fashioned character arcs. Billy is marrying a girl cartoonishly younger than him, but is given second thoughts by a dalliance with lounge singer Diana (Mary Steenburgen). Sam (Kline) is thrilled that his wife has allowed him off the leash with permission to enjoy a sexual encounter, but he’s anxious that his old pulling-power has disappeared. And while Archie (Freeman) is cheerful about his escape from a demeaning home-situation, Paddy (De Niro) is an unwilling participant, his thoughts remaining at home with the memories of his dead wife.

The revelation that Billy had a previous relationship with De Niro’s wife is one of a number of predictable plot twists in Dan Fogelman’s script, but Turteltaub wisely avoids the worst misogynist excesses of the party-animal genre and relies more on putting his cast through more gentle paces. Excessive Vegas product placement and meaningless cameos (50 Cent and Redfoo from LMFAO appear briefly to little effect) reveal a lack of certainty about the film’s target audience, but those keen to see four princes of 80s cinema going through the motions will find their Last Vegas gamble pays off in minor ways.

General release from Fri 3 Jan.

Last Vegas - Official Trailer (2013) [HD] Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro

Billy (Douglas) is having a Vegas stag party with old friends Sam (Kline), Archie (Freeman) and Paddy (De Niro), but the mission of getting wasted is hampered by their differing emotional baggage. Fogelman's script is predictable, but there's a certain amount of pleasure in seeing four princes of 80s cinema act like…